Author: ahc6cw
Wrapping Up
Final presentations are all done and everything went swimmingly. Our patient group got surprisingly close over the last couple of weeks, and everyone was great to work with. While I enjoyed getting so immersed in the design process while taking this class, I think my main takeaway regarding the process is the importance of empathy. Stepping into someone else’s shoes and really understanding their whole perspective is a major key to being able to build a solution to their needs. It’s not simply about fixing a problem. Ensuring that a user can comfortably adopt the solution provided is much more important to the solution’s success.
I don’t know what I would change about this class. The blogs are a good idea. I think the workload was just about the right amount. I understand that it is a J term, so the workload is bound to be heavy. Any more work than we had probably would have been too much. However, the projects were fair and covered a lot of material that was extremely useful to learn. I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get to hear some of the lectures covered over the semester-long version of the class, but ya can’t win ’em all. David and Dr. Allen, thanks for a very fulfilling two weeks!
-Ahnaf C.
Blog Cuatro
I’m very interested in the subject of entrepreneurship, so the lectures from these last couple of days make me wish I could take the longer version of this class, which covers topics topics we won’t get to talk about in these two weeks (IP, venture funding, etc.) and features several experienced guest lecturers. I also appreciate the encouraging attitude of the two professors, especially considering the arduous process of building your own product/company.
…Rats. David just walked into the room to tell us the today’s guest speaker had to cancel.
On other fronts, the projects are progressing steadily. There are three projects, each of which require a lot of work, so we have to make sure we’re chipping away at them throughout the week. I’m essentially done with my reverse-engineering drawing, and I’m done collecting data for my personal health project. In terms of how I will present my partner’s progress, I have a number of ideas down. The patient project is also going exceptionally well. We built a prototype and tested it out with our patient, and she found it to be exactly what she needed. We also gathered some perspectives from patients with similar problems by contacting certain organizations (more on that during the presentation tomorrow). We present first in the morning, so I’ll update with my last blog post after seeing how that goes!
Sunday Funday
Couple updates from class. On Friday we presented our personal health and client projects. My personal health presentation seemed to be well received and I got some good feedback (particularly about why blue light before bed is bad for sleep and recommendations as to how I could adjust my partner’s sleep schedule at night.) A lot of students were attempting to better their partner’s sleep habits, so it was interesting to see such a variety of approaches to the same problem. Our client project also went well. It was a great warm up. While the presentations went longer than originally planned, we definitely used our time to gain some valuable feedback. For example, while the panel mentioned that they enjoyed our demo, Professor Chen pointed out some holes it illustrated in our design thinking; he mentioned that we may have jumped to simply implementing the concept of the Tile into a dog toy, without taking a step back and considering how the overall idea could be improved (e.g. what if the dog toy got louder as the patient got closer?)
Today was a different experience, as most of it was devoted to the reverse engineering project aka the roller coaster of emotions. The most frustrating part was that it took me 5 hours to accomplish what could be done in an 11-minute YouTube video. And I’m not even close to done! Tomorrow we’re spending some time visiting our client patient and then I’ll be back on SolidWorks grinding it out. It’ll feel good when I finally see that finished product.
-A
Day 4
There are two Ahnafs in this class. It took ~16 years of education for that to happen and I’m surprised it actually did. There aren’t enough Ahnafs in the world.
We are now knee deep in our design projects after an few days. In that time we’ve done a ton of research on our disease, and we’ve brainstormed several needs we could address for the patient and possible solutions. There are a few phases of this process I’d like to mention.
We spent over an hour yesterday observing an important part of the patient’s weekly routine. Without going into too much detail, I was astonished by how capable and independent she is. I could argue that she is more active than me, and that’s without eyesight! Truly unbelievable. She was extremely easy to talk to. We quickly built a rapport and she readily answered any questions we had/gave valuable feedback on our ideas. It was a very memorable encounter.
I love our group dynamic. It’s fun to navigate all the different perspectives and hear everyone bounce back and forth ideas. The most notable example of this was when we gathered all the needs we could come up with and honed in on the ones we wanted to work on while separating into smaller groups. The best part is we’re really just getting started.
-Ahnaf C
Day 1
I don’t know if I’ve taken a class quite like this one before (and not only because the class is six hours long every day). Every dimension of the class presents a challenge unlike anything I’ve been faced with during college, and the applications of every lesson is obvious. Personal health project – I’m approaching this as an opportunity to better myself, where my partner’s grade is dependent on my effort. Also, it’s kind of like having a personal health coach for the next couple of weeks and I’m going to make a concerted effort to develop healthier dietary habits. Design project – first of all, it’s going to be incredibly interesting to work with a blind person. I’m excited to observe how the subject handles routine activities and lives such a high-functioning life. The subject suggested some ideas for our team’s project based on some problems she experiences throughout her everyday life, and admittedly they sounded like very small problems! Technology has come a long way in providing her with a better quality of life. However, I took a walk with her after class and immediately recognized that there are some things about her life that could be improved that she may not even be aware of—and, hopefully, that is where we come in. Hand drawings – the most significant takeaway from this activity was something David said… “A sketch can be a powerful tool for bringing others closer to your idea.”
-Ahnaf C.
BME Design 